


Edith

by Ylevihs



Series: How Not to Fall [31]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Retribution Spoilers, Softness, a quiet entry into the let sidestep have a pet 2kxx, community service ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 03:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20807948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylevihs/pseuds/Ylevihs
Summary: Richard is terrible with names





	Edith

Fear. Trembling and stuttering in jagged lines through his head. 

Excitement. High anxiety. Delight. Joy. Fear _fear_. Love. Slamming into one another and jolting back, sending shivering ripples waving out. 

The physical noises weren’t much better, but it wasn’t for long. Only for a few more brief moments and then out of there. Out into the blessed air and out of.  
It didn’t stink. Well. No. It reeked, but not a foul smell. Just an organic one. An unmistakable animal fear and fluid one. Not bad but enough to let the sniffer know discomfort and trembling occurred here frequently. Loneliness. Heart squeezing in its simplistic sincerity. 

Richard fought back the urge to run his hand through his hair and succeeded, but by a margin thinner than spider silk. Cages and needles and pain. Fear and fear and the urge to. Run. Bite. He breathed. Let his fingers curl over themselves and twist. Cracked his knuckles and winced at the faint echo. Couldn’t bounce his knee without pissing off his hip and so the nervous energy built in the hollow spaces on his bones until he.

He rose carefully from the plastic chair and did his best to look interested in the posters on the walls. Fiddled with the edge of one to give his fingers something to do. 

The girl behind the counter was finishing up her chat with Daniel—most of the real conversation had apparently happened over the phone. At other volunteering opportunities. Her name was. Samantha? Something like that. Sam probably. Nice kid. Getting volunteer hours for her college application. Overjoyed that the newly out Ranger and. And her eyes had shifted a little to the side and the corners of her mouth had pulled up in shielded delight. The tiny thrill of seeing people who were like her. Maybe. In just the way that it counted for a seventeen year old about to join the world for the first time. The newly out Ranger and his _boyfriend_ were volunteering at the same place she did. 

“Anyway, I know there are probably, uh, like, a ton of other places you could be helping, and uh,” Daniel cut her off. Kindly. A patient tone that Richard recognized.

“No place we’d rather be,” 

Unfettered delight. She knew it was a platitude, but apparently it was enough to make her beam. “Great! I’ll just be right back, one sec,” and she darted back through the heavy door, letting a slip of bright excitement, wild, manic panic, and the sounds and smells and then the door closed behind her. 

There was a small moment of stillness which, thank him to the ends of the earth, Daniel broke quietly. 

“How you doing?”

“Fine,” and he flinched. More curt than he wanted it to sound but the bleed over was putting him on edge. “So. Dog walking? I didn’t think you’d run out of community service ideas so quickly,” Daniel snorted gently and floated to his side, bumping a playful elbow into his shoulder. Richard rubbed the spot in fake agony for a second, wincing sharply. 

“I figured I wouldn’t make you teach pee wee basketball until you were feeling better,”

“Seriously? You weren’t joking about the,” ah, beans. There was a list floating around in Daniel’s head, amorphous and ever changing, but it kept slipping neatly out of fingers every time he went to peek at it. “You weren’t. Alright,” he made a noise not entirely like a sigh and earned himself another soft elbow to the bicep. The proximity was helping; bright and loud and. Daniel was in a very good mood about something and it made Richard have to bite his lower lip to keep from smiling about it. 

“Besides, taking slow walks is supposed to be good for recovery,” for both of them. Hip and knee. Daniel’s own rehab had been. “And,” he paused for a moment and Richard caught a breeze of something he couldn’t quite identify. “A lot of the. They don’t get to have a good day very often. Plenty of people will say how they want to help and just don’t know how, you know?” Richard nodded, he did. “It’s small but it still matters,”

Taking shelter dogs for walks. Small, but it mattered. 

The doors opened and through them came young Sam, flanked by two panting, wagging tailed dogs. Mutts, the both of them, with fur shaved almost down to the skin in some areas. They were both overjoyed at being out and about and able to sniff and. They were relatively the same size as one another, one sleek and short haired with white around his muzzle. The other was soft black and curled. Whatever she was, poodle had clearly played a part. She had little smears of orange above her eyes.

“Okay so, sit. _Sit_…Okay, good,” Sam fumbled with the leashes for a moment before handing the sleek dog’s lead to Daniel. “This is Rocky, he’s been adopted but the new owners weren’t able to pick him up until tomorrow, so we’re saying goodbye, aren’t we buddy?” The newly named Rocky wagged his tail. Eager. Impatient. Friendly and excited by the vision of his leash. He jumped slightly with his front legs, nails tip tip tapping on the tile floor. “And this little lady is one of our newer additions. She doesn’t have a name that we know of yet, but that’s okay isn’t girl? Isn’t it?” Sam cooed at the curly dog before holding out the leash for Richard to slip over his wrist. 

While Danny and Sam began a discussion about the best routes to walk on, how long they could be gone, where to avoid, Richard crouched down slowly. Clenched his teeth against the ache in his hip. There was still too much stimulation coming from the back room. Too much shimmering darting unrestrained emotion to get a very good read on. The dog looked up Sam, looked over at Rocky and Danny, before gently padding over to sniff at the back of Richard’s hand. 

A sniff or four and then a quick lick to his knuckles and she let him scratch lightly at the top of her head and.

Ah, beans. 

-

It was a good day for it. Cool by Los Diablos’ standards and just breezy enough to keep it interesting. Rocky and the unnamed dog were clearly comfortable around each other, walking side by side without too much bumping into one another. Free of the pressure of the shelter knocking on every door, the dogs’ thoughts were easier to pick up on. Rocky was still plain excitement, joy at outside at noises at smells at sunshine at walk. Softer, more mellow, thoughts from the other dog. Happy to be out, yes, happy to sniff and inspect, but a little meekness played through. New people, new places, new sounds, new smells. It only took a small push from him to have her relax back. This was good and fine. This was nice. 

Richard tried, he did, very seriously, not to feel a little flush of self-satisfaction as her tail started to wag. He failed spectacularly. The dog’s mind felt good. Pure and simple and unguarded. She was enjoying herself now and it was impossible to stop some of it from seeping into the cooler spaces in his chest. 

Beside him, a fair bit below him as Daniel was actually walking the dog and not hovering behind it, something swirled and shifted. 

“How are _you_ doing?” Richard returned his earlier question. It wasn’t. It. Not anxiety, but something had unsettled him. Kept unsettling him. It took more self-control than Richard wanted to admit to not slip deeper into Daniel’s head and see for himself. Getting better at boundaries was slow progress but he wanted to make it work. The not-quite anxiety was tempered with something else that almost felt like excitement. Probably bleed over from the dogs. Had it been the way the girl at the shelter had watched them? Daniel was perceptive enough to have picked up that she was excited for more than just extra helping hands. 

But Daniel was also used to being a symbol by now. What was one more group looking up going to matter to a man in the clouds?

“I’m good,” Daniel said, keeping his attention down on the dog in front of him. A mild lie. He wasn’t doing bad, but there was something weighing down his thoughts. The quiet simmering happiness from earlier still dominated. 

“Yeah?” and he tried to keep the tone of his voice gentle. To not press too hard. It was an odd and rare thing to feel Daniel trying to keep something from him, but it was allowable. There was nothing there he. It didn’t need to bother him. It didn’t need to. “Let me know if there’s anything, okay?”

“Sure,” this time earnest. “But really, I’m good,” Nothing wrong enough to bring it forward. Nothing wrong enough to involve Richard. It didn’t make him feel any better. Another, equally unwelcome thought slipped in between his molars. 

“Did you know Chen and Ricardo are together now?” out before he could stop it, but it did a marvelous job of jerking Daniel’s thoughts back into the open light. Startled enough to almost make Richard chuckle. 

“What? You mean like they’re hanging out today?” spoken slowly because surely he hadn’t heard that right? Surely that. What?

“Danny,”

“_Together_ together? Sleeping together? Like,” his mouth didn’t get to say ‘you and me’ but his thoughts arrived loudly at that station. Richard shrugged and felt Daniel’s mood adjust itself. “I…no, I didn’t know that,” not as startled or hurt by it as Richard had been, to say the least. 

“Chen told me a few days ago at the park,” Richard continued, coming to a stop so the unnamed dog could take some time sniffing at the base of a street sign. Rocky joined her, forcing Daniel to pause as well. A tumble of surprise as Daniel slotted that information into somewhere that made sense. “I told him we were moving in together and he said that he and Ortega were hooking up,” that earned him a snort at least.

“There is no way he said it like that,” he shook his head and Richard was treated to a spectacular mental imitation of Chen rolling his eyes and drawing out the syllables of ‘we’re hooking up,’. 

“More or less,” the grin took over his face.

Daniel grinned back. “Mhm, I’m sure. Still, that’s. Not something I saw coming,” he admitted, rubbing his thumb over the fabric of the leash in his hands. “I didn’t think Ortega was…,” 

“You and me both,” Richard sighed and absently reached down to pet the nameless dog. She stopped her thorough inspection of the street sign to turn her attention to the hand on her back, tail wagging and tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth. Warmth and approval. Wanting more petting and attention and wanting his approval. 

“She likes you,” Daniel said, voice lilting high and filled with. Oh. Oh, this was. This was what he had been anxious about. 

“Did you suggest this to try and convince me that getting a dog is a good idea?” Richard felt his eyes narrowing. It had come up once or twice, usually after his sessions with Dr. Finch. Daniel was fan of the idea of emotional support animals and frequently brought up how Spoon was clearly helping Chen. 

Richard’s mind squirmed at the idea. Dogs, any pet, really, required stability. Someone who was sure to come home every day and be able to walk and play and take care of them. Even if Richard didn’t. Even if. What happened if he got arrested as Mad Dog? Or the Farm found him? That was one more innocent life just waiting to be fucked up by him. And what happened if. No. Don’t think about that. 

Daniel floated up about an inch from the ground, hand on his chest to dramatically clutch at nonexistent pearls. “I would never,” he was beaming through the lie and it smacked into Richard’s head like headlights on a black night. “You are being punished right now. This. We’re doing a service for the community,” he landed again and flicked his hair back from his temples with a quick whip of his head. Unfairly handsome. The words started slowly. “But you know, things happen and,” and rapidly picked up speed, as if he could only manage to speak quickly enough, Richard wouldn’t be able to stop him. “If you happen to find a dog that happens to like you a lot like that one and you like her back I’m just saying that there’s no reason not to consider,”

“No,” Firm. Decisive. Useless, because the dog herself had turned completely around and was nuzzling at his hand, looking for more head scratches. He felt his hand moving without telling it to. Obligingly running the dull edges of his nails through the short curls. Blue eyes flickered downwards and ah, beans. How was it possible for him to smile wider? Split his stupid, prince charming face in half. 

“No?” Daniel echoed, reaching out gently and taking one of Richard’s hands. “Why not Richie?” playing coy. Stroking his thumb over the back of his hand and oh, come on, that was cheating. “You like her don’t you?” practically sing song. Pumping pleasant thoughts and nice, warm, inviting. 

It felt like having a molar pulled by a particularly rusty tool. “She seems like a good dog,” through gritted teeth. This was not happening. This couldn’t be happening. Daniel was not going to be able to convince him to get a dog, they had had this discussion before and Richard had been adamant that he was not the sort of person who deserved to have a dog. Couldn’t take care of himself let alone another living creature. No amount of radiant joy from his boyfriend or gentle stroking against his skin to keep him calm or. Just because she was licking his fingers and wagging her tail and.

Ah, shit. 

“I don’t have anything at the apartment for her,” and didn’t they need a lot of. Everything? Food and water dishes and collars and tags and beds and crates and toys and treats and paperwork. She’d need shots and. A traitorous part of Richard’s mind did not point out that he had gone from imagining a nameless, amorphous, stand in filler ‘dog’ to _this_ dog. The dog on the end of the leash who kept beating out gentle notes of happy and warm and licking his hand. 

Daniel’s eyes lit up, sky bright and blinding. “Turns out there’s a pet supply shop just a block down from the shelter. They have a deal with them—discounts on bedding and food and toys and,”

“Daniel,”

“Richard,” firm and then softening quick—too quick, too quick, not good. Not. Daniel managed to slide his fingers around Richard’s palm and bring the hand up to his mouth for a quick kiss against his fingers. “Get a dog with me,” not a question. “Get this dog with me,” and he looked up with those eyes and pressed his lips against Richard’s hand again and.  
Richard felt something in him resist, waver. Snap. Oh, it was his resolve. Fancy that. Cheater. Richard said as much. “You can be downright manipulative when you want to be,” 

“Mhm,” Daniel agreed easily and the grin was back, full force. “You’ll have to pick out a name for her,”


End file.
